Epaper
It was rather a disappointing week for chief minister K Rosaiah. The Congress high command watered down his grandiose plans to expand and reshuffle his cabinet and form his own team. What is worse, it had given enough hints to Rosaiah that he might not be continued in the hot seat for a long time and that he should be get ready to step down any moment.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi had apparently come to the conclusion that Rosaiah had miserably failed to take control of the party leaders in the state and nobody is willing to take orders from him. Though he had displayed his administrative skills, he had failed to turn the same in favour of the Congress party. With his lack of decision making abilities, the party affairs had completely gone haywire and if any changes are made in the cabinet at this stage, it would be counter productive to the party, the high command felt.
So, it looks like the change of guard in the state is imminent. It might happen in a couple of months, if not immediately, only after the Congress high command overhauls the entire party set up in the state. Some harsh measures to tighten the party also are not ruled out, going by the developments in the state congress in the last one week.
Apart from the developments within the Congress party, yet another issue that proved a headache for the Rosaiah government was the opposition onslaught against the micro finance institutions, which have been fleecing the gullible borrowers by charging high rate of interest, resulting in several suicides in the recent past. Under pressure from the parties and the media, the government was forced to bring in an ordinance to curb the activities of the MFIs, but the lack of clarity on the rate of interest has led to further criticism. The government is trying to wriggle out of the crisis, even as the opposition parties are gearing up for a bigger fight.
On the Telangana front, the launch of the Telangana Praja Front by revolutionary balladeer Gaddar last week turned out to be a damp squib, as was evident from the poor response he had got for his Mahbubnagar meeting. The party faced a split on the day one itself with popular Telangan leaders like Arunodaya Vimala, a powerful Telangana singer and wife of Janasakthi leader Amar, besides veteran Telangan fighter Kesava Rao Jadhav coming out of the front, differing with Gaddar. They had argued that the front would not be able to mobilize the peopleâs support without a specific political agenda.
Dalit leader and Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi president Manda Krishna Madiga is also keeping away from the front. The problem with Gaddar is that he is being remote controlled by Maoist forces, which do not believe in parliamentary democratic system. At the same time, his statement that the front was aiming at getting the Telangana bill passed in Parliament showed his confused state of mind. What is more, he has given the impression that he was only targeting the Telangana Rasthra Samithi and its leader K Chandrasekhara Rao, rather than consolidating all pro-Telangana forces. The timing of the launch of the TPF has also raised many an eye brow.
As regards Jagan, there is nothing much to talk about, as the marathon Odarpu Yatra is continuing still in Nellore district. The only interesting development is that the UPA government had appointed him one of the members of the committee to oversee implementation of the Prime Ministerâs 15-point programme. Whether it is a humiliation or an acknowledgment of Jaganâs presence in the Congress is still a puzzle!
